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Sermanni full of praise for retiring Jo Peters

Westfield Matildas coach Tom Sermanni was full of praise for retiring midfielder Jo Peters ahead of her final international match against Italy in Canberra on Saturday.

Westfield Matildas coach Tom Sermanni was full of praise for retiring midfielder Jo Peters ahead of her final international match against Italy in Canberra on Saturday.

Peters will play her 110th international match, placing her third on the all-time appearance list for the Matildas, behind recently retired Cheryl Salisbury (151) and current teammate Heather Garriock (112).

In a career that began in 1996 against New Zealand, as a newly turned 17-year-old, Peters scored on debut and has scored 28 goals, the second highest for the Matildas, behind Salisbury.

“Sensational player,” was how Sermanni responded when asked his thoughts of Peters, who affectionately known as ‘Joey-.

“Like Cheryl, she is respected worldwide. She has played all over the world for at a national level and club level; had a terrific season with New York in America; played in Brazil with Santos and has overcome injuries like most of our major players.

“She is a very, very good footballer,” he enthused. “You could tick all the boxes when you talk about Joey; she could play in most positions; she-s got skills, got pace, she-s two-footed, good in the air; she-s got great vision; she-s got the whole package as a player.”

At just 29 years of age, Peters could quite conceivable have played for several more years in the national fold, but having missed the entire 2008 international program through mainly injury, Sermanni admitted that Peters had been planning to retire for sometime.

“I think the other thing that is significant about Joey, is she actually spoke to me halfway through the W-League season about her retirement. I put her off and said lets worry about it at the end of the season.

“Her concern was she didn-t want to hang on too long and therefore limit the opportunities of up and coming players to get established in the team and that kind of sums up Joey Peters; you know selfless commitment to the Matildas cause.”

Peters retirement marks the end of era for one group of players that have endured long careers with the national team since the early-mid 1990-s.

“It will be the end of an era,” Sermanni conceded. “With Di (Alagich) retiring midway through last year and Jo and Cheryl (Salisbury) now gone, that era of players is now out of the game.

“It brings new leaders to the fore, with new dynamics to the squad and it will be a fairly considerable change. It will be interesting to be around the squad when those three aren-t there, as they have been such fixtures (in the squad) for many years.”

Sermanni will give her the honour of the captaincy for her final game and no matter what happens, knows she will leave the game as winner.

“Most certainly she will be captain. I think it will be a big game for her to finish on; she looks comfortable and relaxed and hopefully she takes that out onto the field.

“Regardless of how she plays tomorrow, or what the result is, she has been an icon in this game and goes out as a winner,” he concluded.

Peters and the Westfield Matildas play Italy in the second of their two-match series at Canberra Stadium on Saturday at 4pm. The first match was drawn 2-2 in Sydney.